In Jun'an town, Shunde city, Guangdong province,
several hundred employees of a garment factory assembled. The
company person-in-charge made a public speech, and then 200 employees
used scissors to cut up more than 1,000 pairs of jeans into pieces.
According to the company person-in-charge, these jeans were manufactured
last week. Before they were shipped out to sell at the company's
four retail subsidiaries, it was discovered that there were quality
problems. "The problem was about the color matching. During
the production process, the workers had used cloth material from
different dye vats to make the jeans. This meant that a large
number of jeans had different shades of colors. In the worst case,
one pair of jeans had four shades of colors." He said that this
was not the first time that this had happened. It would be wrong
for the company to distribute these jeans into the market as a "new
style" which the consumers can observe. Therefore, the company
chose to stop work for a day and assemble the workers to explain and
reflect. The jeans were estimated to be worth 120,000 RMB in the
market.

The company person-in-charge said that the
action was done purely for internal reasons as opposed to a publicity
stunt. He also said that he does not want to make enemies with
other companies which would have sold the imperfect jeans at discount
price.

[020] Fast Food Restaurant
Uncle (04/29/2008) (The
Sun) This is a YouTube video story with a twist. On April
18, a Hong Kong woman and her boyfriend went to order take-out food at the
Maxim BBQ meat restaurant. She ordered a rice box with roast pork and
octopus, but was told that octupus only comes with the "Six Treasure" special
(along with soy sauce chicken, salted egg, etc). She immediately threw a
fit. Then she asked for the roast pork to be put on the side.
Unfortunately, the chef forgot about the request to separate the roast pork.
So the woman cursed him out. The chef then made an obscene retort.

So the woman got incensed and took out her camera to film her response.
The YouTube video runs just over 1:38 minutes. So far it has accumulated
300,000 viewings (and there is even one version with English sub-titles).
The video clip begins with a woman yelling at the chef: "What are you saying?
What are you saying?" The chef made a rebuttal and another Maxim
employee tried to intercede and apologizing to the woman repeatedly. But
the woman kept yelling: "He said that was fucking going to beat me to death!
You tell me to come out here and fucking beating me to death!" Then she said:
"You can go to YouTube tonight and see yourself and Maxim."

As mentioned before, this story had a twist.
The woman posted the video in order to embarrass Maxim and the chef.
Instead, the netizens reacted strongly against the aggressive behavior of
his "Kong girl." They did not hear what the chef said to her in the
first place, but they can hear what she said in the video. Instead
of a consumer boycott campaign against Maxim, there was a concerted effort
to dig out the background of the woman. The woman has removed the
video, but netizens have uploaded backup copies (search for the term
快餐店亞叔).

In addition, there were rumors that the woman
eventually called the police and the chef was fired by Maxim as a result.
So there is a threatened consumer boycott campaign against Maxim unless
they keep the chef on the job. Maxim has responded that the chef is
still employed but is now working in a different restaurant.

Q. When you wrote the essay to oppose the
Carrefour boycott, were you prepared to be cursed out?A. At first, that was just a short essay about the Olympic torch
relay written for the sports page of a website. After it was
labelled by the media as "Bai Yansong opposes the Carrefour boycott," it
became a controversy among netizens. On one hand, this was not my
original intention. On the other hand, I was deeply gratified
because it is a form of democracy to be able to debate in public.
But when debate crosses the line to become a struggle, it makes me feel
bad.

Q. Ten years ago, it was protesting against
the United States. Four years ago, it was protesting against
Japan. Now there is a boycott of Carrefour. Do you feel the
same way? What did you think and do back then?A. Everything began with anger, which will probably dissipate
soon enough like the wind. We were expressing our feelings but we
cannot stand still on the same grounds. The Seventeenth Congress
has clearly placed democracy ahead for China. Perhaps we can
quickly jump out of the Carrefour affair and move on to contemplate how
we can make the process of democratization quicker and more stable by
elevating the quality, method and mentality for democracy.
Having gone through the initialization of democracy in the 1980's, I can
easily understand how young people can be inflamed by patriotic
passions. But today's young people should also understand how the
patriotism of a middle-aged person has evolved to become more reasoned
and worried with the responsibility for persisting and constructing.
Yelling is one form of patriotism, and rationality is another. But
it takes much effort to be rational than to yell. When the Chinese
embassy got bombed in Serbia, I was conducting a television show and I
said something that I can still remember today: "The true response must
be to make our nation become stronger."

Q. How can one be rationally patriotic as you
say? Isn't emotional patriotism good enough?A. "I disagree with your opinion, but I will defend your right to
speak." This is an important cornerstone of democracy. It is
your choice not to go to Carrefour, but other people are free to shop
there. When you forcibly deprive or interfere with other people's
rights and freedom, this is not only undemocratic but it is another form
of violence and dictatorship.
One must be restrained by rationality when one expresses one's voices.
One must observe the legal and moral bottom lines. When passions
coalesce, it is easy to step past the line with bad consequences.
Since the law does not hold bar these expressions, people seldom reflect
and discipline themselves and they will repeat the same thing the next
time. The attraction of democracy is rationality. A
democracy not supported by rationality is destructive as opposed to
constructive.

Q. In the view of certain people, we are
facing huge threats and challenges.A: We must say farewell to the simplistic duality of black versus
white, or right versus wrong. When someone says, "If you don't
boycott Carrefour, you are supporting France," the logic does not hold.
If you simply divide people into either enemies or friends, you create
more enemies and your views run into obstacles. Among the people
that you consider to be your enemies, many are really your friends.

Q. If you were there at the scene and you saw
the boycotters, would you try to stop them?A. As an individual, it is hard for you to say anything. You
may makes things worse. At those moments, it is necessary to use a
public platform.

Q. Regrettably, we lack education and
training in democracy.A. We now have opportunity to speak out. Democracy is a
good thing and we have begun to articulate the voices inside our hearts
about the road to democracy for China. When the people of Xiamen
went out to stroll to protest the PX project and the citizens of
Shanghai used group buying to oppose the Maglev, we can see the
creativity and increasing rationality and self-restraint of the Chinese
people in the face of democracy.
The easily invoked patriotic passion may seem invincible, but it is
actually a double-edged sword.
Concerning what has happened, we don't need to be overly concerned even
though there were some worrisome things. If there had been some
calm thinking during the heat of passion, this could be a good lesson in
democracy. Amidst this, the government, the media and the expert
scholars should perform their duties. It could be disastrous if
someone suppress, or indulge, or exploit, or even just pander to the
situation. These passionate young people are the cornerstones of
the future democracy, and the Internet and mobile phones will be new
media that will play an important role in that democratization process.
The coordination and enhancement between the two will be required for
the Chinese democratization process. Of course, the country needs
to learn how to use the standard rules of democratic societies in order
to express its own voices more convincingly. This is an urgently
needed educational lesson.

Q. For the Chinese media, are there certain
rigid ideas that affected them in speaking out rationally?A. It is the mission of the media to be rational. In the past,
we were accustomed to people saying how good we were. After a
while, it seems that everybody was saying nice things about us.
During the Serbian affair, I said that the world is never as simple and
kind as we imagined, because there are complicated relationships.
In normal communication, we should be able to hear both the good and bad
things from overseas. This will gradually immunize our audiences.
When something specific happens, we will know how to use international
standard rules to communicate our own voices more effectively.
This is not about publishing editorials over a short period of time.
This is about using multiple voices from people telling their own
stories and making appeals using common language and sentiments.

[017] Photo
Analysis (04/27/2008) Remember The
South China Tiger Photographs? In that case, the Chinese netizens
applied their PhotoShop skills to debunk a photo of a paper tiger. The
same skills are being used to examine a photo published at the website of the
German television channel N24.

(Anti-CNN.com)
The photo appeared at N24 on April
21, 2008. The title is "Propaganda War: China begins re-education in
Tibet." The accompanying photo shows three Chinese police officers
and three elderly Tibetan monks. The photo does not appear to be
captioned. But if you move your mouse cursor over the photo, a
caption appears: "Chinese police watching a ceremony for Tibetan monks in
Beijing."

The issue is not even about using a Beijing photo
of a religious ceremony for a story about re-education (if you insist, the
informal term is 'brain-washing'). Some of these religious
ceremonies are attended by large crowds and the police are present to
maintain public order. The problem here is that the Chinese netizens
are having big problems with the photo itself.

The first technical problem is that the police
uniforms date back to the 1990's as confirmed by archived photos over the
years. The best guess is that the policemen were filmed in 1998.
In addition, the third policeman who is only partially available in the
rear is actually from a different branch of the police.

The bigger problem can be determined by studying
the photo carefully yourself. The more one looks at the details, the
more illogical problems are discerned For example, there is sunlight
on the chest of the policeman in the middle, but nobody else is getting
any sun. Furthermore, the lighting angles on the faces of the monks
are coming from different directions. Finally, a lot more is
discernible if the photo is magnified in PhotoShop whereupon one can
discern the typical lines of pasting around the edges of the persons.
This photo is apparently a composite with the people coming from several
other photos.

This photo is generating more response and
indignation than much more worse gaffes. Why? Because just as
in the South China tiger affair, there is a technical group project here
and that generates interest. There is also competition among the
various forums to be the first to come up with the conclusive analysis
(such as finding the photos where the people first appeared in).

[016] Beijing
Will Meet With The Dalai Lama (04/27/2008) (Chairman Rabbit at
the My1510.cn
group blog)

[in translation]

The following is a discussion of the tactics for
the meetings between representatives of the Beijing government and the
Dalai Lama. There is nothing here about the substance of the
meetings.

China is prepared to make contact with the Dalai
Lama for the purpose of understanding his intentions and views of the
current situation as well as preparing for future negotiations.

The Chinese government has to be careful about
its policy towards the Dalai Lama. On the one hand, it has to
consider the various forces within the Tibet independence movement.
It has to consider whether the Dalai Lama is a relevant factor: it is
possible that the Dalai Lama has lost his influence in the Tibet
independence movement because his policies have been ineffective.
(The strong and uncompromising stance of the Chinese government has to a
certain extent caused an internal rupture within the Tibet independence
movement.) Over time, the Dalai Lama will become less and less
useful.

Secondly, the Chinese government has to consider
whether the Tibet Youth Council and other radical movements are relevant
factrors: if these groups decide to employ violence and thus ruin the
Dalai Lama's established "brand" of non-violence within the
international community over the years, the Chinese government can
suppress them in the name of anti-terrorism. Militarily speaking,
China has no fear about the radicals. Even if China refuses to
negotiate at all, it can still use the internal divisions within the
Tibet independence movement to achieve results.

But refusal to negotiate with the Dalai Lama
will put China in an awkward position internationally. The Dalai
Lama is making a request that deserves some respect and China should
show the willingness to hold a dialogue to solve the problem. The
Dalai Lama has broad influence internationally, and he has the sympathy
of many western citizens, social groups and politicians. The Dalai
Lama is also influential in the Tibetan areas of China. The Dalai
Lama is still the undeniable spiritual leader of the Tibet independence
movement. Even if the negotiations failed to deliver any results
(just like the previous six rounds), the Chinese government can point
out that the Dalai Lama side was intransigent and that may be
convincing. Certain western observers have already recognized that
the demands of the Dalai Lama for a high degree of autonomy are
impractical and have asked him to use his political wisdom and
pragmatism to make concessions. By opening the gate to reach out
to the Dalai Lama, China stands to win international approval regardless
of the outcome.

Therefore, China should have a dialogue with the
Dalai lama.

...

In the western theory of negotiations, the
action is not just at the table. Rather, there has to be
preparations beforehand (building up public opinion, changing the
language of discourse and influencing the interest groups at the third
level); the determination of the agenda, goals and strategies (at the
second level); and the actual discussion at the table (including the
interaction techniques at the first level).

On China's side: From the viewpoint of the world
at large, there were disturbances in Tibet and China was subjected to
international criticisms and unfair treatment. The Olympics are
politicized and interfered with. If they are making contact with
the Dalai Lama now, then they appear to be disadvantaged. In
reality, the action of the Tibet independence movement has increased the
distrust and alienation of the Chinese government towards the Dalai
Lama, and thus make any negotiation between the two sides infinitely
more difficult. The Tibet independence movement people must
realize that the Chinese government may not like a soft approach but
they will never accept a hard approach. The Tibet disturbances,
the biased western media coverage and the subsequent protests during the
Olympic torch relay has gained the Chinese government tremendous support
from its citizens over the Tibet issue (to the point where this support
has become a pressure that limits its options). Presently, the
Chinese government continues to build its public support and this will
become a powerful bargaining chip. Insofar as three-dimension
negotiations, China has been very successfully domestically but it is
relatively less so internationally.

On the Dalai Lama's side: They have certain
international support and sympathy and they are the special opportunity
of the Olympics. Yet, the Chinese government is more concerned
about support and stability within China. International opinion
cannot help the situation too much. China is the key towards the
resolution of the Tibet problem. Besides, the Dalai Lama has
publicly stated that he supports the Beijing Olympics. At this
point, linking the Tibet issue with the Olympics can only cause even
bigger blowback inside China. Therefore, the Dalai Lama is
unlikely to cause trouble for China over the Olympics and thus increase
his estrangement from China.

Finally, the Dalai Lama has a time crisis that
China does not have. The Dalai Lama needs to solve the problem
quickly but China is in no hurry. As the Dalai Lama grows older,
the movement that he leads will be a total failure if he cannot use his
own influence to resolve the problem or at least bring the solution
closer. At the same time, if the Dalai Lama fails to make progress
in his dialogue with China, then he must have to worry about losing his
credibility among the radical elements within his movement.

In summary, the Dalai Lama is standing out in
the open while China is standing in the shadows. The Dalai is a
successful political leader internationally, but he has been a failure
in his dealings with China with many dreadful mistakes. As far as
public relations is concerned, the Dalai Lama must realize that while
his efforts in the west are successful, the problem is going to have to
solve through "public relations" with the Chinese people. The
Chinese government and the Chinese people are the ones who can solve the
Tibet problem. He needs to use all possible channels and he needs
to take all possible actions.

Finally, we look at the cards. The Chinese
government clearly holds the upper hand. Apart from the support of
the people, they also see that the Dalai Lama is getting old.
China only has to quietly wait for his demise (that is, disappearing
physically from the international stage) and then bring up a new Dalai
Lama. No matter whether this new Dalai Lama is recognized inside
and outside of China, it is for certain that the next one or two decades
afterwards will not see a new Dalai Lama with personal charisma
conducting public relations campaign in the western world. When
that happens, the Tibet independence movement will drift into further
confusion and division.

Just as the Olympic flame is about to reach Hong
Kong and mainland China, the Guangdong province police have recently
uncovered a case in which a cheap-rate factory in Guangdong was filling
out orders by overseas Tibet splittist organizations to manufacture the
snow-mountain-lion flags of Free Tibet. The factory workers
thought that they were just making some colorful flags. But some
workers had watched Hong Kong television and seen the flag before.
They also went on the Internet and checked. When they found out
what the flags were, they called the police immediately. The
Guangdong police intercepted several thousand printed flags that were
packed for shipment, and they determined many people to assist in their
investigation. The factory owner said that the flags were ordered
from overseas, and he did not know that these flags stand for Tibet
independence. The Guangdong police does not preclude the
possibility that some of the flags had already been shipped overseas and
may appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there. The
Guangdong police has now intensified their inspection of cars heading to
the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

According to the Hong Kong Department of
Security, demonstrators are entitled to express their opinions.
There is no Hong Kong law that prohibits the snow-mountain-lion flag.

[014] Here Are
The Facts But What Is The Truth? (04/27/2008) Which of the following
two stories will play in western world? Neither because nobody cares
about a non-event. Which story will play in China? You have one
guess ...

Heavy security and a large contingent of
pro-Chinese supporters thwarted protesters' efforts Saturday to disrupt
the Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay. On Saturday, police
guards in track suits surrounded the torch bearers and another 100
uniformed riot police ran alongside six patrol cars and two motorcycles,
largely preventing incidents. They were backed up by thousands of other
police.

Only minor scuffles and protests broke out along
the 11.6-mile route through the city that hosted the 1998 Winter
Olympics. Five men were arrested separately during the relay.
Three tried to charge the torch, a fourth threw eggs, and a fifth hurled
tomatoes at the flame. All were quickly pounced on by police,
police official Akiko Fuseya said.

(Wenxue
City) According to eyewitnesses at the 69-th handoff point
of the Olympic torch relay, a group of Japanese rightists charged into the
motorcycle lane to confront some overseas Chinese students. They
grabbed the Chinese national flags in the students' hands and used the
flag poles to poke at the Chinese behind the fence. They also
punched and kicked. One Chinese student fell to the ground bleeding
in the head.

[013] Macau
Netizen Arrested For Exercising Freedom Of Speech (04/27/2008) (Apple
Daily) Early yesterday morning, the Macau police came across a
post at the Lan Kwai Fong Discussion Forum persuading people to snatch the
Olympic torch when it comes to Macau. After investigation, the Macau
police took a man named Cheng in for questioning at around noontime.
Cheng admitted that he made that post, but he insisted that it was just a
joke. The police believed that this was just a prank but nevertheless
the activity is still publicly advocacy of others to break the law. The
case will be forwarded to the prosecutor's office.

Hong Kong Legislator Councilor James To (of the Democratic Party) said that
even though Article 23 is not yet law in Hong Kong, an open call to seize the
Olympic torch may be prosecuted by the police because it is a call to disrupt
public order. If an attempt was actually made, the police can prosecute
on the grounds of robbery and/or disorderly conduct.

[012] Comments About ESWN
(04/26/2008) Here are some random thoughts about the EastSouthWestNorth
blog.

Here, I am thinking about an interesting
example. There is a Hong Kong blog named ESWN that specializes in
translating information from Chinese into English. It is a
principal source of information for many western media. For the
Tibet incident, ESWN translated many Chinese-language reports about
Tibet. One can say that those reports are very much leaning
towards China's viewpoints but they were nevertheless cited by the
western media. But if you pay close attention, you will discover
that ESWN that has often included many gory photos about
police/municipal administrators beating people up. Thus, the blog
was still framed within the 'linguistic logic" of keywords such as
"human rights," "abuse" and "democracy." This makes it fit into
the "linguistic logic" that the western media can accept (even though
the western media may feel that the overall tone of the essays were
unsuitable, the angle and structure of the narratives are nevertheless
acceptable because they are on the same side).

With due respect, this is unfair to me as well as
the 'western media.' I am honored by the reference that ESWN is a
"principal source of information for western media.' This assertion
was probably based upon Rebecca MacKinnon's survey of foreign
correspondence (see
link). But the reasons given here are wrong.

What do I think why I should appeal to these
western media workers? I should think that I am a person who is able
to spend a lot of time scouring through the Chinese (mainland China, Hong
Kong, Taiwan and overseas) Internet every day. I do not have the
time to translate every interesting item that I come across. So I do
what I can, and my selections necessarily reflect my predilections.
I choose whatever pleases me and the calculations of the 'western media'
(I put the term in apostrophes because I have no idea what that means) do
not matter to me at all. If they like to cite me, so be it; it they
won't, so be it too. I do not live and write for the imaginary
desires of the western media.

As for the specifics, the references in the
Adxonist blog were probably about certain coincidental incidents such as
Bloody Land Grab #1 and
Bloody Land Grab #2. This impression had to be based upon a
cursory reading about those items. After all, ESWN is best known for
Statistics of Mass Incidents,
which is a debunking of the standard western media narrative about mass
incidents in China. Upon information and belief, that ESWN blog
post had an effect on subsequent reporting about mass incident. If
anything, I have frequently accused because of such posts that I must hate freedom, liberty, democracy
and all that because I decline to recite the standard script.

I also don't proselytize on this blog. I
believe that if I were just another blogger sitting in his pyjamas and
pounding the keyboard in the middle of the night to instruct people about
the meaning of freedom and democracy (alternately, patriotism and
loyalty), nobody would (and should) come here. In fact, my belief is
so strong that I don't allow reader comments. In the May 4th 2008
issue of Yazzhou Zhoukan, there is this paragraph at the end of the
editorial column:

In this wave of anti-western demonstrations,
there were certain unpleasant reactions inside China. On one side,
certain people are over-excited and they hand out terms such as "Chinese
traitors" and "treason." On the other side, certain other people
are charging people with being "brain-dead" and "fenqing (=shitty
young people)." On one side, those people are overly natoinalistic
and react to everything as if this was the second coming of the Cultural
Revolution. On the other side, those people have made it a habit
to oppose the Communists at every turn so that they will applaud
whenever foreigners debase China as if this was the second coming of
anti-Communist fascism. Neither side care about any facts.
Neither side care about what is right or wrong. Their chosen
positions determine everything for them. Actually, these two sides
are Siamese twins that cannot live without each other. One side is
the polar opposite of the other side. For China to continue to
develop, it must leave these two burdens behind. Modern China has
suffered a lot and the biggest loss is rationality. The two types
of people above have both been twisted first by their times, and then
they are twisting themselves and others. People should not pay
heed to these two types of people who represent two simplistic
polarized extremisms.

Once upon a time, a Hong Kong magazine reporter
interviewed me. Afterwards, she told a mutual friend of ours that
the ESWN blog was not especially meaningful. After all, she could
read Chinese and all the ESWN-translated materials were available to her
in the original Chinese. She is technically right, but she is wrong
at the end. The key is about those selections. Many people can
read Chinese. Some people can translate from Chinese into English.
A lot fewer people have the instinct for news to discern which stories
will eventually become prominent.

That doesn't sound too hard, does it? So why
are there not many ESWN-like translation/bridge blogs from Hong Kong or elsewhere, given that
this model has been proven to be popular and influential? That is
because it is easier said than done.

For comparison, here are some English-language
from the new blog of the famous Hong Kong commentator Martin Oei:

Last weekend, I spoke to a group of journalism
students about the mainland Chinese media operation model and reform.
I asked them about their overall impression about China and they said:
"one party dictatorship," "rule of law is inadequate," "but the economy
is growing rapidly," "Hong Kong relies on mainland China on many things"
... such were their answers. Then I asked the second question:
"Where did you get that impression?" They said: "From reading the
newspapers and watching television news." My third question was:
"Do you watch CCTV or read the mainland newspapers?" Answers:
"Very rarely" and "Those are government propaganda." I asked next:
"What do you think of the latest popular mainland catchphrase 'Do not be
too CNN'?" These students replied: "CNN is biased against China"
and "news reporting ought to be objective." These future news
workers of Hong Kong remembered the most basic principle of journalism.

For the longest time, if you asked: "Who do you
trust? CCTV or CNN?" many Chinese citizens (especially the young
people) probably feel the same way as these Hong Kong journalism
students. The obvsiou choice was CNN because CCTV is official
government media. But today, the mainland Chinese citizens are not
so sure. That is because CNN has disappointed and infuriated them!
The American-Arab thinker and political critic Edward Said said in his
famous work <Orientalism>: "The Orient was invented by the westerners as
The Other in their prejudice-filled cultural imagination." Today,
China and the Beijing Olympics seems to have just been "invented" by the
western media over the Tibet and human rights issues.

But this latest "invention" of the western
mainstream media turned out to be a double-edged sword. While
China has been wounded, the "inventor" unexpectedly found that the
people who struck back against them would be precisely the young Chinese
people who tended to trust them previously.

When China opened up thirty years ago, a
countless number of Chinese people reached for VOA and BBC.
Through these western media, the Chinese people (especially the young
people) expanded their vistas and found out that media were not just
propaganda tools but can actually serve as watchdog over the government.
As China opened up further and technology improved, the Chinese people
came into contact with more western media. Among these, CNN stood
out because it had 24/7 news coverage as well as bringing live coverage
right from the scene. Through CNN, the common folks as well as
national leaders can understand what was happening around the world.
CNN made it impossible for the authorities to shut down information.
CNN caused the official Chinese media to open up their eyes and imitate
how to become quicker and better. Although the mainstream western
media are still not freely available inside China, the Internet age has
made the names of CNN, BBC, ABC and CBS familiar to the Chinese people.
Many people (especially the young people) regard these as important
sources for the latest information.

Of course, more and more Chinese people
(including journalists) have adopted the value that the media should be
watchdogs as opposed to mouthpieces. They agree that news
reporting should be fair and objective. But then all of a sudden
now, they found out that mainstream western media such as CNN which had
embraced freedom of press and objectivity/fairness were in fact
cropping/editing news photos, mislabelling photos and making prejudicial
commentary. Rather than saying that the Chinese are angry, it is
more appropriate to say that they feel cheated.

Actually, there is no such thing as absolute
freedom of press in the world and there is no absolutely objective news
reporting. Journalists have their unique backgrounds and education
which form their ideas and positions. The key is whether a
journalist can make a fair and balanced report irrespective of personal
position. The renowned American journalist Walter Lippmann pointed
out that "news does not equal facts." He said that "people
(including journalists) prefer to use the stored impressions in their
brains instead of using critical thinking to make judgments."
Lippmann was not trying to demean the subjectiviy of journalists,
because he was a journalist himself. He was pointing out a fact
that everybody has to admit whether they like it or not -- reporters and
common people have preconceived notions (or prejudices). The
journalist must put aside these preconceived prejudices in order to
guarantee that the news reporting is objective and fair.

After "Don't be too CNN" became the most
fashionable phrase in China of the moment, do western media such as CNN
recognize that the young China people who used to be more receptive to
the western viewpoints have now become the major force in opposing the
inaccurate western media coverage and any Olympic boycott? This
should be something that the western media and certain politicians to
think about.

CNN and other western media have 're-educated'
the Chinese people. The Chinese people (especially the young
people) no longer believe blindly in the western media. That was
an unexpected windfall for the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao administration and
it was definitely not the intention of the western media. We do
not want to see the young Chinese people to have passion without
rationality. We should not say that all western media are biased.
This is just one part of the storm over the Beijing Olympics whether we
are talking about the media war or the China public relations image war.
One biased report by CNN and one unfair comment by a CNN newscaster
should not cause the Chinese people to doubt the importance of
objectivity and fairness in journalism. We should place even
greater value and we should work harder to maintain freedom of press and
objective reporting. Only when we have been truly objective and
balanced shall we have the most effective weapons to deal with the
attacks from others.

Part 1: On April 22, 2008, the
entertainment section on page A23 of <Southeast Commercial News> reported
on the North Korea classical opera <The Flower Girl>. The photograph
was accompanied by a text that said that <The Flower Girl> was created
with the participation of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and
then perfected by Kim Il-sung personally. In truth, Kim Il-sung
ruled North Korea until he passed away in 1994 and he was succeeded by his
son Kim Jong-il, who is the current leader. Presently, <Southeast
Commercial News> is going through self-criticism before the local and
provincial publicity departments.

Part 2: On the same day, the blogger Tang
Zewen reported on the mistake in <Southern Commercial News> in this blog.
Tang was the editor at the newspaper <Metro Express> in the city of
Hangzhou. His blog contains other interesting entries. For
example, he posted the internal bulletin from the Zhejiang provincial
party publicity department criticising <Metro Express> on its reporting of
the Tan Jing 'suicide' case. Internal bulletins are for internal use
by definition, but Tang posted it on his blog for the public to read.
Tang commented that the Zhejiang provincial party publicity department was
the Department of Truth in George Orwell's <1984>.

Shortly afterwards, Tang's blog was 'harmonized'
into oblivion. On April 24, it was reported that Tan was suspended
from his job by the provincial party publicty department. On April
25, the name Tang Zewen was removed from the list of editors at <Metro
Express>.

Here is the criticisms against <Metro Express>
over the reporting on the Tan Jing case:

1. This is hyping up old news from the outside.
This incident was just an ordinary social incident that took place in
Guangzhou ten days ago. The Guangzhou media had reported the case
and issued an conclusive report. But <Metro Express> collected and
edited information from various newspaper websites without conducting
any verification and then made a full report. The choice of news
story is unbecoming for a responsible newspaper. The newspaper is
not trying to satisfy the public's need for timely social news; instead,
it is trying to satisfy the prurient interests of certain readers.

2. The story deliberately exaggerated the
details, with color photos of the woman before her death and the photo
of her half-naked body being lowered to the ground by the police.
This is highly inappropriate because it disrespected the deceased and
completely ignores the feelings of the the family of the deceased as
well as the readers. This is against the basic ethics of
journalism.

3. In order increase 'readability,' inaccurate
rumors and speculations were exaggerated. The Guangzhou police had
made its statement that "the possibility of death caused by others can
be eliminated" and this was reported in the Guangzhou media.
<Metro Express> continued to relay the various speculations and rumors
before the police statement: "Female unhappy with fees was thrown down
the building by three foreign men," "offering sexual services" and so
on. The terms "sex worker," "sexual service," and "order by public
security bureau not to talk" appeared repeatedly. The report ended
with the emphatic conclusion: "It is still a mystery as to whether the
deceased provided sexual services to the three foreign men." This
report was done in poor taste. The angle and focus were clearly
about scandalizing, partiality and melodrama.

[009] Taiwan By
The Numbers (04/26/2008) (TVBS)
(902 persons age 20 or over interviewed by telephone)

Q1. When Ma Ying-jeou officially becomes the
president of Taiwan, should he issue a general amnesty for government
officials at various levels about possible misuse of special fees?
20%: Yes
48%: No
32%: No opinion

Q2. Should Ma Ying-jeou official issue an amnesty
to current President Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen about possible
use of the state secret funds?
19%: Yes
57%: No
24%: No opinion

Q3. What should Ma Ying-jeou do with respect to
the state secret funds case?39%: No amnesty whatsoever, not even if Chen and Wu are found guilty
and sentenced to prison
17%: No amnesty up front, but Chen and Wu should be pardoned if found
guilty and sentenced to prison
13%: Amnesty up front with the case being discontinued
30%: No opinion

[008] The CNN is
no more (04/26/2008) (北斗二代 at Blog.china.com)
This photo was taken at a hotel in Xuzhou where the Pacific forum is being
held.

... In recent days, rumors were circulated on
the Internet that Carrefour intends to offer huge discounts during the
May 1st "Golden Week". According to netizens, Carrefour had
released advertisements about the special May 1st campaign, including
offering coupons worth 250 RMB for the purchase of selected merchandise
worth 500 RMB. Thus, the discount is as much as 50%.

Some netizens have posted screen captures of
those sales offers from the Carrefour website. This reporter saw
that the advertisements say that Carrefour will have a weekend sale from
May 1 to 4. For men and women clothing and shoes, children
clothing and shoes, dining accessories and kitchen utensils, 45 RMB
coupons are offered for 150 RMB in purchase, 120 RMB coupons are offered
for 300 RMB in purchase and 250 RMB coupons are offered for 500 RMB in
purchase. On the Internet, some people are saying that Carrefour
adopted these measures to counter the "boycott Carrefour" campaign
through the offer of large-scale sales discounts. These ads
provide the evidence for the Carrefour counterattack.

This reporter went to the official Carrefour
website. The original advertisements are gone. There is only
a notice on the home page that the Carrefour website is down for
maintenance and renovation. The website will be back after
maintenance and renovation are complete.

The reporter contacted the public relations
person for Carrefour in Shenzhen. She said that Carrefour was
running a series of sales promotions between March 27 and May 2 for the
fourth anniversary. But she emphasized that there were all part of
the anniversary celebrations and not specifically targeted to the May
1st holidays. As for the special discounts that were advertised
previously for the May 1st Golden Week, she said that the corporate
headquarters have issued a notice to cancel all sales promotions.

According to the relevant Carrefour person in
charge, the preceding series of incidents has placed Carrefour in a
perilous position. Under these circumstances, there was no way
that Carrefour would run sales promotions during this sensitive period.
Therefore, the company has asked the local stores to cancel all
large-scale sales promotions. But she said that the various
specific promotions will continue to run, because they were national
campaigns for certain product brand series in conjunction with the
manufacturers. Those campaigns were decided several months ago and
cannot be canceled at this time.

[006] Newspaper
Front Page (04/25/2008) (Wenxue
City) This is the front page of the current affairs section of
News Times (in Shanghai). The advertisement was paid for by News Times
itself.

[005] The
Shanwei Incident (04/25/2008) (Tycool)
First, there are the photos which made this a sensation on the Chinese
Internet. These photos show a bunch of men carrying firearms in the
street. What kind of lawless society is this?

(Apple
Daily) As for the news story itself, there are two versions.
You''ll have to make up your own mind about who the good and bad guys are.
The facts as shown in the eight photos above can be used to support either
version.

The two versions agree that the location is Jiazi
town, Lufeng county, Shanwei city, Guangdong province.

Version 1 is provided by a Hong Kong businessman
named Liu who invested in the Jinhai Hotel in Jiazi town. In 2005,
Liu invested HKD 50 million to construct the hotel. On January 3,
2008 the hotel began business on a trial basis. On January 12,
several hundred men holding AK47 sub-machine guns, Remington shotguns,
machetes and pitchforks surrounded the hotel to cause trouble. The
men used an earth remover to knock down the wall of the town family
planning service center under construction near the hotel. The
police showed up to mediate but nothing came out of it.

At 3:30am on the day before yesterday, two men
wearing helmets on a motorcycle showed up outside the hotel and fired two
shots from a shotgun at the hotel. An exterior glass window was
broken. More shots were fired at cars parked in front of the hotel.
The men then fled. The hotel management called the police, who
ignored them. Yesterday afternoon, a bunch of women and children
showed up to demonstrate outside the hotel. Someone said: "He
(meaning Mr. Liu) keeps a mistress.

According to Mrs. Liu, "When we first made the
investment, an influential person helped us and then he wanted us to
donate 5 million RMB to pave a road in the name of public interest.
We only donated 100,000 RMB. Someone was unhappy and they want to
force us out!" Mrs. Liu said that their ancestral graves had
been flattened by unidentified persons. She said that they intent to
terminate their investment and return to Hong Kong due to the poor
security situation.

Version 2 is provided by local Jiazi town
residents. This incident arose the Hong Kong businessman named Liu
wanted to have that plot of land next to the Jiazi ferry pier to build a
dormitory for employees. Meanwhile, someone else wants the land for
charitable purposes. There was a quarrel. The residents said
that Liu then built a brick wall to corral off the land. This
infuriated the residents, who organized to demand the demolition of the
wall. The residents armed themselves with guns and knives because
they were scared of Liu's goons. Ultimately, Liu agreed to demolish
the wall. Liu tried to appeal to the Shanwei government, but he
lost. As for Liu's ancestral graves, the residents thought that the
plot of land belonged to the Li family. When Liu settled his
ancestors' remnants there, the Li's thought that it damaged their fengshui.
This was a dispute between the Liu and Li families, but Liu put the blame
on the Jiazi residents instead.

Between April 14 to 16, the Qianlong reporter
went to visit the Agence France Presse Beijing office twice, the Reuters
Beijing office thrice and the Associated Press Beijing office twice in
order to determine if the big three news agencies were objectively and
fairly reporting the assault, vandalizing, looting and arson in Tibet,
the Olympic torch relay and especially about how the Tibet splittists
are sabotaging the latter. But the Qianlong reporter was turned
away with the comment "You can look it up yourself on the Internet"
being the common answer provided by these three biggest news agencies in
the world.

Accordingly, the Qianlong reporter used the
Reuters, AFP and AP search engines and found that these western media
were disproportionate in terms of their reports wherein they
deliberately over-amplified the voices of the Tibet splittists versus
the protesting against the separatism and sabotage by the Dalai Lama.
The western news agencies provided a one-sided tilt towards Tibet
independence. This "selective reporting" prettified the
"non-violent" "spiritual leader" image of the Dalai Lama in order to
realize their ulterior goal.

On April 19, the Qianlong reporter went to the
Reuters Chinese-language website and searched for the keyword "snatching
the Olympic torch." The search result was that "there was nothing
that matched 'snatching the Olympic torch; please revise your search
requirements and try again." When "Tibet independence" and
"assault, vandalizing, looting and arson" were searched, the result was
that "the page could not be displayed."

On April 19, 20 and 21, the Qianlong reporter
went to the English-language websites of AFP, AP and Reuters and used
the search engine to look for keywords such as "Olympic torch,"
"Tibet" and "Dalai Lama". There were about 3,100 news photo over
the past 30 days. Astonishingly, "Olympic torch" showed virtually
no photos of overseas Chinese supporting the Beijing Olympics and waving
the five-star national flags.

At the AFP website, the Qianlong reporter used
"Olympic torch" as the keyword and restricted the search to April 7 in
France. This resulted in 143 news photos. Among these, 95
were about the Tibet independence marchers and protestors or the attack
on the Olympic torch relay runners and the local police. There
were 4 photos that showed the Chinese protesting against the Tibet
independence demonstration. There was not a single photo of any
cheering for the Olympic torch or China.

At the Associated Press website, the Qianlong
reporter found 186 news photos for the keyword "Olympic torch" for April
7. 96 of these are about the Tibet splittists smearing the
Olympics and opposing China. There was no photo in support of
China and the Olympics.

At the Reuters website, the reporter entered
"Dalai Lama" on April 19 and found 744 reports about the Dalai Lama
expressing views about Tibetan independence. As for news photos,
there were 21 of them. When the Qianlong reporter repeated the
exercise on April 21, there were 556 photos related to the Dalai Lama,
including one photo of American president George W. Bush meeting with
the Dalai Lama credited to "Reuters/Jim Young."

... There were 409 unique photos among the 556
news photos. Of these, 354 were about the travels, meetings,
religious activities and peaceful petitions in support of Tibet
independence as well as glorifying "Tibet's exiled spiritual leader."
By contrast, there were only 13 photos about the assault, vandalizing,
lotting and arson committed by the Dalai Lama clique. With this
huge discrepancy, how must credibility is there about "objectivity and
fairness"?

On April 19, the "Dalai Lama" keyword at
Associated Press resulted in 476 news photos, most of which are about
the Dalai Lama visiting the United States and meeting with important
politicians. There were also photos of Tibet splittists protesting
in the form of "peaceful" petitions as well as making a show at the
Olympic torch relay. But there was nothing about the Chinese
people protesting against the evil deeds of the Dalai Lama and the Tibet
splittists.

On April 19, the Qianlong reporter visited the
AFP website and used the keyword "Dalai Lama" to find 483 news photos,
with the contents being comparable to those at Reuters and Associated
Press ...

At some of the big portals, the story about AFP,
Reuters and AP filtering Tibet separatist information figured
prominently. This was probably a report designated to be
highlighted, but it made for some truly extraordinary reading.

The author attempted to examine the search
results at the various search engines of the major news agency websites
in order to prove that the western media are seriously biased.
Using "Dalai Lama" as the search term, the results from AFP did not have
a single photo about "assault, vandalizing, looting and arson."
This is significant because the Qianlong reporter subjectively believe
that the "assault, vandalizing, looting and arson" were connected to the
Dalai Lama clique because that was the charge made by the Chinese
government. However, the western news agencies may not draw the
same connection. Therefore, the outcome was not surprising.
The Qianlong reporter made an assumption, and then put the onus on other
people.

On April 19, the Qianlong reporter first went to
the Chinese-language news agency websites and searched for "snatching
the Olympic torch". The search result was that there was no
relevant information and the user is advised to change the requirements
and retry. Searching for "Tibet independence" ended with the
message "this page cannot be displayed."

For the first part, this only showed the
Qianlong reporter had lousy search engine skills. Why would one
expect the Chinese-language website of a western news agency to have
very good Chinese language functionality? It was not surprising
that a long keyword such as "snatching the Olympic torch" will result in
nothing. The western news agency website is neither Baidu nor
Google.

More interesting is the second part when the
Qianlong reporter said that "the page could not be displayed."
Either this reporter is living in a true vacuum, or else he/she is being
sarcastic by saying the exact opposite. Most people who use
overseas search engines know that "the page could not be displayed" will
pop up for sensitive terms. This is not about the Reuters
Chinese-language website, because the credit should have been given to
the Great Firewall of China.

1. Searching for "Tibet independence," the
link was re-routed; if the Tor service is used, the results were
normal.

2. Searching for "assault, vandalizing,
looting and arson," the link was re-routed; if the Tor service is
used, the results were normal.

[003] Anti-CNN
Demonstration in Second City (04/23/2008) (Anti-CNN.com)
Second City (第二城市) is a Chinese virtual community.
Recently, the residents held an anti-CNN demonstration.

[002] Carrefour
in Dongguan (04/23/2008) (Wenxue
City) In Dongguan, Carrefour was forced to close for business
due to the demonstrators outside.

[001] The
Conspiracy Theory About the Anti-Carrefour Demonstrations (04/21/2008)
When photos and videos showed the March 14 incident in Lhasa looked like a
riot involving assault, looting, vandalizing and mayhem, the conspiracy theory
is that the perpetrators in lama garbs were Chinese soldiers in disguise.
When paralympic torch bearer Jin Jing was assaulted in Paris, the conspiracy
theory is that the perpetrator was a Chinese agent. What about the
current anti-Carrefour demonstrators spreading across China now? What is
the corresponding conspiracy theory? (And this is likely in jest,
although who can tell nowadays!?).

Warning: We are firmly determined not to repeat
the tragedy of March 14!

At the QQ groups, people are talking about
vandalizing cars, handing out propaganda flyers, picking out goods at
Carrefour but not checking out, even vandalizing the stores on May 1st
... the most infuriating as well as most shameful proposal is that the
method which the majority of the people have been persuaded by the
Internet agents provocateurs to do against Carrefour: Pick a whole bunch
of sea food/ice cream, put them in your shopping cart, drop the cart off
elsewhere in the store, walk away without checking out and thus making
sure the products spoil! I am ashamed of what you say and do!
What is the difference between you and the rioters!? Do you
realize that you are being exploited?

According to reliable information, 200,000
special agents from various nations as well as Chinese traitors have
spread across China to misinform and incite the masses to engage in
assault, vandalism and looting, even harming and murdering people.
When that happens, the blame will be assigned squarely to China and the
Chinese people.

When that happens, who would dare to come to
attend the Olympics in China? You people are stupid to follow
those calls to smash cars!

The United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and
Germany must be laughing even in their dreams when they sleep!

You can boycott by refusing to go to make
purchases. You can stick to buying Chinese goods only!

All those people who wave banners inciting
people to assault and murder are special agents and traitors.

If you follow their lead, China is in the shit
dump!

So please make a reverse turn and let everybody
know, because there is still time!

Please watch those around you who are
deliberately stoking up conflicts! Report them to the Public
Security Bureau as quickly as possible!

We must hold our positions firmly! Under
the premise of not hurting the feelings of the Chinese people, we
support peace, we support the Olympics and we support China. We
will use appropriate methods to support and love our motherland!